GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
EZRA 6:1-5
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6:1 So King Darius made a decree, and they searched in the treasury of the archives where the documents were stored in Babylon. 2 And then in Ecbatana, the capital of the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written:
“A record.
3 In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the King issued a decree: Concerning the temple of God at Jerusalem. Let the temple be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide, 4 with three courses of large stones and one course of timber. The cost is to be paid from the royal treasury. 5 And, the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to the temple in Jerusalem, and each set in its place. Put them in the house of God.”
Ecbatana (Hebrew “Achmetha”) was the summer palace of the Persian kings, just as Susa was the winter palace (Nehemiah 1:1). It was located in northwestern Iran, today called Hamedan, and it is still a thriving city (therefore it has not had any archeological excavations). It is 340 miles due north of the upper end of the Persian Gulf (halfway to the Caspian Sea). Looked at more locally, it is about two thirds of the way in a direct line from Baghdad in the west to Tehran in the east. Seen from above, the layout of the city is in the classic Persian style with a large central park and two concentric circles of avenues a quarter miles and again a half mile out, with six avenues dividing the city perfectly into six “slices of pie” centered at the inner park, today known as Imam Khomeni Square. After searching the other libraries of official documents at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, a search was made at Ecbatana and the document was finally found. Perhaps this “fourth location” gives the reason why the order was not remembered by the king or his court.
The document was exactly what the exiles were hoping for. It gave permission from Cyrus himself to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus gave permission for a huge temple to be built, which was perhaps not followed to the letter. Solomon’s temple was sixty cubits long (90 feet), but the building was only twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high (30 x 45 feet, 1 Kings 6:2). There is little to be gained by wondering about Cyrus’ memo. Either he made allowances for the base platform, or else he or one of his scribes made an error in the dimensions. It might be that Persian scribes could only imagine a square temple like a ziggurat and assumed that the Israelites would do the same. It does not matter; the permission was given to build a structure much larger than the one Solomon had built.
A ”course” in masonry is a horizontal row of stones or bricks. This is preferred in buildings because it ensures stability as well as a certain attractiveness to the finished construction. Courses can be laid with the block flat on its long edge (a stretcher course) or with the blocks tipped on their side for more height (a shiner course), although in a very large building the stretcher is preferable. In brick buildings, rows near the top of a wall or above a window are sometimes made of blocks tipped up on end with their narrow edge facing out (a soldier course) or tipped up the same way but with the wider edge facing (a sailor course). In the kind of masonry involved in the temple, bricks were not employed, but massive blocks of limestone. These courses were topped with cedar beams so that the roofing could be more easily attached.
This document is not really a letter for public reading. It’s more like what we would call a memo, and some translations call it a memorandum, although I’ve just used the word “record.” It is only a summary of the contents of a more public document, just the basic facts, for reference and without bothering with all of the flowery imperial language and greetings. The final two details I think worth noting are that Cyrus allowed for government funding for the temple to be rebuilt, while giving a free hand to the exiles for the design and execution of the construction. Lastly, the gold and silver vessels were to be returned. It was good to see that, so that there would be no confusion over mistaking the vessels themselves as any kind of payment and also allowing the exiles to put them back. Sometimes it isn’t easy to make an outsider, eager to help, understand certain restrictions about who may do what in worship. But Persian guards would surely understand that the local priests should be the ones to handle items used in worship.
How shall we rightly divide this passage into law and gospel? What here shows me my sin, and what here proclaims the gospel?
The first and clearest example of law is the exposure of the sin of the opponents of God’s people, Tattenai and his companions. Their sin is an example of the great enemies of God’s elect (the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh), stemming from general hatred for God and the desire to choke down God’s plans like a plant smothered by a stone. But their sin is likewise the result of a simple error; ignorance of an old government edict, which might be excused by a generous heart.
A second example of the law is the detail that Cyrus gave dimensions for the temple building, sixty by sixty cubits, but with no reference to how long the building was to be. Acting as the supreme government authority, and without any direction from God as to the dimensions to be followed, the cubits of Cyrus were to be taken as limits: this far and no farther. We are to obey our government when it does not command us to disobey God’s law.
Thirdly, there is the command to return to confiscated gold and silver property of the temple. This was obeyed, but under compulsion.
There is no good work of any kind, obedience to laws or generosity to strangers, that is good in God’s eyes without faith in Christ. Our Professor Gerhard says, “The works of the unreborn (that is, unbelievers), however good they may appear outwardly to men and however good they may be in their own kind, such as clothing the naked, helping those in danger, almsgiving, etc., nevertheless before God they are not truly good works which please God. Rather, they are sins.”
They are sins because they are done by a person who is not reconciled to God. “To those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted” (Titus 1:15).
They are sins because those works are not done out of faith. “Everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23), and “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).
They are sins because they are not done for the purpose for which they ought to be done, which is the glory of God. “Our light must shine so that our heavenly Father is glorified” (Matthew 5:16).
They are sins because they are without a true acknowledging of who the true God is. For while Daniel goes to great pains to show the apparent conversion of Nebuchadnezzar to faith, the same cannot be said of Cyrus or the other kings such as Belshazzar, who was killed in battle on the same night the law of God was proclaimed to him (Daniel 5:30). “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father either” (John 5:23).
All of these things serve to illustrate the darkness of unbelief. Each statement is like a row of light switches in a big gymnasium; with each click, the room grows darker and darker until there is no light left at all. But this is unbelief– and we are blessed with faith. The glory of Christ throws every switch back on, and in Christ all is light! We do what we do out of faith! We do what we do to give glory to God! We live with the knowledge of who the true God is, confessed in the creeds week upon week. We do all that we do having been reconciled to God through Christ. And there is the whole gospel in this passage. We have what they did not. Therefore we praise God first and give him our love and thanks, for he has brought us into the joyful circle of his light. And we also thank him humbly for his forgiveness, for what are we apart from Christ? We would be worse off than stones, or dust, for we would be destined for torment in hell. But thanks be to God, we have the forgiveness of our sins, and the promise, the assurance, and the demonstration of Easter’s empty tomb that we have eternal life in Jesus our Savior, for ever and ever. What Cyrus said to his servants about cups and bowls, Jesus will say to his angels about you and me: “Put them in the house of God.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Ezra 6:1-5 Put them in the house of God